Larry King triggers verbal fight with Howard Stern

New York (ANI): Larry King engaged in a verbal snipe fest with Howard Stern, after he called him 'tasteless' in an interview. After learning that the CNN talk-show host had trashed him in an interview published last week in Steppin' Out magazine, Stern retaliated by calling King a 'loser' and 'the luckiest man in show business' at a Hamptons party over the weekend - and a 'f-ing ass-' on his Sirius radio show Monday.

King initiated the verbal back-and-forth when he was asked if Stern would make a good replacement for him when he steps down from his talk show. "No, I wouldn't want to be compared to Howard Stern," the New York Daily News quoted King as saying. "He's not tasteful at all. You go to the least common denominator and that''s Howard Stern," continued King.

He also said the shock jock "would like you to print that I called him a smock" - presumably a euphemism for the Yiddish word 'schmuck'. King ended his diatribe with: "I regard Howard Stern as worthless."Stern reacted to the trashing, by saying: "It's alleged he was banging his wife's sister and he's saying that I'm tasteless?" He added, "He's a frog … an imp and he's the luckiest man in show business."

As for King's 'smock' remark, Stern said: "Is that something you wear when you paint?" The self-described King of All Media then summarized the career of the soon-to-be King of no media. "Larry King did overnight radio. He got no ratings. He moved to CNN, where he had no competition. As soon as MSNBC and Fox News gave him a little bit of competition, the cards folded," said Stern.

He claimed he has no plans to take over King's show, but were the job his, he “would do everything that Larry doesn't do because Larry's a loser and he lost his entire audience. Let's be honest, he didn't retire willingly. The man had one foot in the grave. It's obvious, he is no longer relevant," said Stern.